Category Archives: Quilt designs

HST Checkers & Succulent II {finishes}

Over the last year, I have been feeling more of a need to give back to the community. I originally started by donating quilts to NC folks that were recovering from one of our hurricanes. I really enjoyed making these community quilts.

This year at QuiltCon I had picked up an amazing 100 x 5″ square charm pack with Alison Glass fabric. When COVID-19 stay at home orders were issued, I decided I needed some mindless sewing to do. For me that was making Half Square Triangles (HST) with the charm pack and a some Kona Snow (I has on bolt).

I had enough squares to make 2 quilts, with a couple of additions from stash. I chose two designs, a simple grid based combination of snow and a 2×2 block and a previous one I used for my succulent quilt (just larger blocks this time).

Both the quilts were:

Backed with Speckled print from Ruby Star Society, one with yellow and one with teal.
They were also both long-arm quilted by Cary Quilting Company with and edge to edge design.
Bound with an older Alison Glass print.

This is the final quilt for the Succulent remake which finishes at 76 x76″. The placement of the colors are to highlight the radiant movement of the triangles. Starts with Blacks, Greys, Low Volumes, Oranges, Blues & Teals, Yellow, Pinks & Purples and finishes with the greens. There are no repeat print in the same color way. I love how this quilt turned out.

The other quilt, the gridded layout, matched up the colors again but this time in sets of 4. My goal of the block placement was to make sure there were minimal repeats of colors in a row or a single column. This one finishes at 64″ x 72″.

These two quilts, I plan to try something different with. Sometime late July – early August I plan to Auction these quilts off and give the proceeds of the auction to @together.rising (also check out their web page for general information and also how to donate and support their COVID-19 Assistance Program). This charity I have been supporting almost a year and does amazing work in the community. There is one more quilt which I’ll post about over the weekend, Pineapple, which will also be in the auction.

Stay tuned, I will post Auction information on my instagram account @ml_wilkie.

Quinary {a finish}

2 Replies

Idea

Back in 2018, I was had a give away every month. One of the give aways was I would make a mini quilt for the winner. The winner said her favorite color was blue.

At the time, I was looking for a way to design stacked circles/ovals and I discovered Leon Polk Smith. He uses shapes and lines within other shapes to get these interesting nested pieces.

Design

I designed this piece, which I new straight away that I would piece in the dark blue but raw edge appliqué the circles to the background.

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As I cut the three circles (using the olfa circular rotary cutter), they reminded me of Mickey Mouse ears. So making a change in design I added two more circles.

Create

This piece went together really easily. I had backed the circles with Pellon Shape Flex 101 Interfacing to stabilize the raw edges and I then basted and stitched the circles in place.

Quilt

I keep the quilting simple with just straight lines. Keeping me company the weekend, I made this, I also had my Sewtopia buddy Corrina staying. She helped with the photoshop (LOL) of the finished quilt. This was a fun quick project and I love how that secondary square shape can be seen though it is not complete.

Details

Name : Quinary
Design: Original Design
Fabric: White, Alegra, Indigo Kona Solids
Dimensions: 26 x 33 in.
Quilted: 1/2″ Straight line and gridded quilting using Aurifil white #2847

Isolation {a finish}

11 Replies

Idea

Have you ever felt left out, or just on the outside of a group or even cast out? I assume most people at one time or another have felt like that. I have at various times, more than once. This quilt was originally designed based on that feeling of being on the “outs” from a group.

Design

I started the design with an idea of a group people being represented by 10 lines; 9 black (representing the group), 1 red (representing me or the person who was feeling left out). The other big decision I made was on the placement of the red line. Originally, I had the red line to the right but still in alignment with the group of black lines.

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In the end, I moved the red line down 50% and decided to emphasize the mis alignment.

Create

The piecing was relatively simple. I did stitch the Width of Fabric (WOF) black and white strips together before I cut them to size to make it easier and more precise. I used Robert Kaufman Kona cottons for the piece; White, Black and Ruby.

Backing is Moda Fabrics Chicken Wire print. I choose this as it fit the theme of being in prisoned or cordoned off.

Quilt

Since COVID-19 isolation, I have been looking at this unfinished quilt top, and it speaks to me now of self-quarantine and the distance from our friends and family. As a person with Asthma, considered to be in a riskier group (if I catch COVID-19 my symptoms may be more severe), I am realizing I might be here in quarantine for a couple more months.

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These feelings of being into quarantined introduced the idea of ripples and how things effect other elements. I decided to show this effect by using overlapping circular designs around the two groups. The top negative space is then finished with vertical lines and the bottom with horizontal lines, again showing different forces with the direction. All the quilting is 1/2″ lines.

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Finishing this quilt did lift a weight off my shoulders, I did not know needed to be lifted. It was great being able to express yourself through art. The feedback from the community and how people have related has been so wonderful. Thank you all.